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Survival

As probably most guys in America have done, I joined in and saw “Skyfall.” A flick with lots of good action, a complicated plot and popcorn. I was struck most by the comparison the villain made between humans and rats. Without giving anything away, his was the idea that, like rats, we will attack and eat each other in order to survive. Eventually there will be only one rat/human left alive. This is the logical conclusion one must draw if man is merely a biological machine whose sole desire is to survive and see to it that his children survive. Survival is thus humanities sole purpose for having lived. Me first, then you….maybe.

Self sacrificial love, giving ones life to save a stranger is evidence to the contrary. Love is scientifically inexplicable, immeasurable and irreplicable (a fancy way of saying that love cannot be explained, measured or reproduced in a lab.) A popular song from the 60’s expressed the longing “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love.” Can anyone imagine such a world? Dominated by love? It has never happened in all of human history since the fall of Adam, a world entirely under the control of Love. There are bright moments that open a window just a crack to show us that it might exist someday. Stories of a foolish teen boy who threw himself into the ocean to save his dog, perilously caught by a powerful current. He died as did his father who jumped in to save the boy. The dog swam to shore safely. Both Father and son risked their own lives to save the life of another. If man is basically a biological machine whose sole purpose is his own survival and the propagation of his genes, why would anyone risk his or her life to save a dog? It happens often. Maybe we aren’t rats after all?

I often describe hell as the place where God is not in relationship in any way to those who reside there. Hell is mankind left to itself. There is the place where we become rats. Every rat alone, hostile and angry. No pleasure, companionship, relationship or comfort will be found there. God is the source of all pleasure and love and comfort. When He leaves, all of that leaves with Him. If Science is right and we are machines of flesh, then we are all headed for a hell of our own making.

What man cannot do, God did. He did not open the window a crack to show us an alternative. He smashed the window with a wrecking ball and the light of heaven boiled in.

The greatest example of self sacrificial love ever seen was Jesus allowing Himself to be crucified for the sake of those who hated Him. He died that a seething mankind might live. It is unusual for a human to die to save the life of a stranger but to die for an enemy who despises you? That is a love that cannot be measured or explained. It is God inviting us to know Him, to sit down for a sumptuous lunch with our best friend daily, forever. He will foot the bill.

Imagine a place where selfishness is unknown and sacrificial love rules over all. It exists. It’s called heaven.

Romans 8 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin (NASB)

ps: I know that irreplicable is not a word. I like it and I think there is a need for it so I am using it. It’s much better than “incapable of being reproduced or duplicated.”